Tech News & Commentary

Tech insiders bemoan state of TV industry as Intel exits

Some tech industry heavyweights took to Twitter on Monday to vent their frustration with the user-unfriendly state of television in the broadband Internet age. The conversation pointed out the conflicts between the freedom to chose that users crave and the content gatekeepers who are reluctant to change from business as usual.

"It's amazing to me that I pay a cable company $250/month and I can't view all the content anywhere at any time. Are they nuts?" he tweeted.

Marc Andreessen, co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, chimed in about his frustrating experiences with an unnamed pay-TV service.

"I just got the new high-end thing from one of the big guys. Wanted to catch a network show I missed from prior week," he wrote. "Luckily it was in VOD (video on demand) but with only two other old episodes; all others unavailable. Then I discovered when replaying it that commercials are unskippable in VOD."

Having to sit through commercials in the age of video on demand is bad enough, but Andreessen said things got worse.

"I paused halfway through for a break. Came back and accidentally started episode over. Tried to fast-forward to catch up. Denied! Fast-forward disabled for VOD," Andreessen wrote.

Andreessen said he gave up on the device from the multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) and switched over to his Apple (AAPL) TV set-top box.

Chris McCoy, founder of YourSports, added that "where goes live sports" like Walt Disney's (DIS) ESPN, so goes the "future of the cable cartel. Sports not going anywhere for a while."

Walter Delph, CEO of Adly, said he appreciated Hirschhorn and others for raising awareness of the situation. However, the possible acquisition of Time Warner Cable (TWC) by Charter Communications (CHTR) or Comcast (CMCSA) "will most likely slow, not jump-start, innovation" in the industry, he said.

The reason cable and satellite offerings are so restrictive is because their agreements with programmers and content owners take precedent over the consumer experience, Greenfield said.

Consumers may want to unbundle programming and pay for just the channels and TV shows that they watch, but the MVPD industry is not about to abandon a business model that has served it well.

Industry incumbents have been resisting change on many fronts. They are fighting commercial-skipping technology, such as that offered by Dish Network (DISH), and a cloud-based DVR for free, over-the-air TV provided by upstart Aereo.

Some tech industry heavyweights took to Twitter on Monday to vent their frustration with the user-unfriendly state of television in the broadband Internet age. The conversation pointed out the conflicts between the freedom to chose that users crave and the content gatekeepers who are reluctant to change from business as usual.

"It's amazing to me that I pay a cable company $250/month and I can't view all the content anywhere at any time. Are they nuts?" he tweeted.

Marc Andreessen, co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, chimed in about his frustrating experiences with an unnamed pay-TV service.

"I just got the new high-end thing from one of the big guys. Wanted to catch a network show I missed from prior week," he wrote. "Luckily it was in VOD (video on demand) but with only two other old episodes; all others unavailable. Then I discovered when replaying it that commercials are unskippable in VOD."

Having to sit through commercials in the age of video on demand is bad enough, but Andreessen said things got worse.

"I paused halfway through for a break. Came back and accidentally started episode over. Tried to fast-forward to catch up. Denied! Fast-forward disabled for VOD," Andreessen wrote.

Andreessen said he gave up on the device from the multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) and switched over to his Apple (AAPL) TV set-top box.

Chris McCoy, founder of YourSports, added that "where goes live sports" like Walt Disney's (DIS) ESPN, so goes the "future of the cable cartel. Sports not going anywhere for a while."

Walter Delph, CEO of Adly, said he appreciated Hirschhorn and others for raising awareness of the situation. However, the possible acquisition of Time Warner Cable (TWC) by Charter Communications (CHTR) or Comcast (CMCSA) "will most likely slow, not jump-start, innovation" in the industry, he said.

The reason cable and satellite offerings are so restrictive is because their agreements with programmers and content owners take precedent over the consumer experience, Greenfield said.

Consumers may want to unbundle programming and pay for just the channels and TV shows that they watch, but the MVPD industry is not about to abandon a business model that has served it well.

Industry incumbents have been resisting change on many fronts. They are fighting commercial-skipping technology, such as that offered by Dish Network (DISH), and a cloud-based DVR for free, over-the-air TV provided by upstart Aereo.

Tech companies big and small have been trying to reinvent the TV industry, with little to show for their efforts. Apple reportedly has been struggling for years to come up with an over-the-top TV service. Intel (INTC) folded its OTT TV venture on Monday when it sold those assets to Verizon Communications (VZ). Sony (SNE) is planning to launch an over-the-top TV service later this year, but details are sketchy.

But there are signs of change taking hold. Netflix (NFLX), Amazon.com (AMZN) and Hulu are providing streaming video alternatives to traditional cable and satellite services. The NPD Group reported Monday that subscription video on demand services like Netflix have gained in popularity in the past two years, while subscriptions to HBO, Showtime and other premium TV channels have declined.

There was a 6 percentage point decline in U.S. households subscribing to premium TV channels over the past two years, while households subscribing to SVOD rose 4 points, the research firm said. As of August, 32% of U.S. households subscribed to premium-TV channels, while 27% subscribed to SVOD services, NPD said.

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